In woodworking, as in other types of material cutting, it is often essential that close dimensions be held, or that workpieces of uniform size be cut. For power tool apparatus, such as a table saw, the alignment of the workpiece, particularly for cross cuts and miter cuts is a relatively difficult task. Heretofore, the accepted way was to draw a scribe line on the workpiece and the operator then guided the workpiece into the cutting path of the blade. Because of the placement of the cutting blade substantially back from the front edge of the table, the operator would still have to "eye-ball" the beginning of the cut and then push the workpiece on through for a complete cut. The difficulty in lining up the guide mark with the tool, often times resulted in numerous trial cuts with attending waste and loss of time.
A kerf guide or gauge is described in U.S. Pat. No. 2,750,970. As disclosed, this is essentially a mechanical device which, in considering the present invention, is complex and appears to be expensive. Further, it is known in table saws to utilize a circular disc of material disposed in close proximity to the table top opening through which the sawblade penetrates. It has limited application in that it may be easily covered by various standard widths of workpiece, and it does not provide the cautionary function available with the present invention.
It is therefore a primary object of this invention, to provide an arrangement offering a kerf guide feature for an increased number of standard widths of workpieces, together with a cautionary marker feature which alerts the operator to the area of the table top whereat the cutting tool is present.
It is another object of this invention to provide an inexpensive kerf guide which facilitates various cutting operations such as cross cuts and miter cuts.
It is still another object of this invention to provide a kerf guide which is adaptable to provide varying guide marks so as to accommodate the various cutting blade thicknesses or cutting tool devices which normally can be utilized in such power tools.